The P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy (#1-3) (10 page)

I hopped into the shower with a smile on my face, letting the hot water roll over me, relaxing my well-loved body. I began humming to myself, unable to pull my thoughts away from Bryn. Snatches of last night kept flashing across my mind, making my shower take longer than planned. By the time I finally turned the water off, the entire bathroom was filled with steam. I pulled a fresh towel from the linen closet, wrapping myself in it before making my way back to my room, still humming.

“Someone’s in an awfully cheerful mood today.” I stopped short to see my mom standing in my room setting some folded laundry on my bed. She smiled at me, obviously thinking my good mood had something to do with my date last night, and not Bryn. “Want to tell me about it?” She looked at me eagerly, her green eyes dancing.

My face heated as an unbidden memory of Bryn and I locked together in bed flashed across my mind. “There’s nothing to tell. Can’t I just be in a good mood for no particular reason?”

“No,
you
can’t be in a good mood for no particular reason. I know you too well, peanut.” Her face was expectant, as if her words would loosen whatever secret I didn’t want to tell her.

“There’s nothing to tell,” I repeated, fidgeting from foot to foot.

She frowned, her face showing disappointment. “Fine. If you don’t want to share with your mom, I guess I can live with that. But can I assume you’re going to have a second date with Jeremy?”

“Yeah,” I said, leaving it at that. I wasn’t lying about that part. Let her draw her own conclusions.

“Good,” she said, sounding very pleased with herself. “Come downstairs when you’re dressed, and I’ll heat up some breakfast for you.”

“Okay.” I waited for her to leave before getting dressed, pausing to text Jenna before I headed downstairs.

U need 2 get here ASAP—can’t deal with mom interrogating me about last night.

K. But we need 2 go somewhere so u can fill me in
, she texted back, followed by,
Leaving now, c u in 10
.

I texted back,
K. Pretend we already had plans
.

She didn’t text me back, but I knew she’d be on it.

I stalled a little bit longer before heading downstairs, giving Jenna time to get to my house. Just as I was coming down the stairs, the doorbell rang, and I dashed for it. “Jenna’s here, Mom. Last night we made plans to hang out today,” I called.

“You still need to eat breakfast,” my mom called back. “Maybe Jenna will want something, too.”

I flung the door open, never more relieved to see Jenna and her now
blue
hair? “That red lasted even shorter than usual,” I observed.

“Yeah, well, I had to do something last night since a certain someone was M.I.A. after her date, and I had no prospects of my own,” she retorted.

“Shhh,” I hushed her. “My mom has bat ears. We have to eat before we go anywhere,” I added. Well, at least Jenna’s new hair color might distract my mom for a few minutes while I scarfed down some breakfast. I trailed into the kitchen behind her, my nerves at an all time high, when suddenly my entire world tilted.

It was like the dream/premonition I thought I’d had the other night at Jenna’s after Ryan’s party. I was pulled up and away from my body, drawn to the pulsating soft purple glow of the same gate. I saw in fast-forward the same imagery I had before—
There were so many of them
—
too many to count
—
and I couldn’t tell any of them apart. They all appeared uniform in appearance to me. Huge eyes bulged out of their too tiny pinched faces. Luminescent, dewy skin glowed with a soft light that picked up on the gate’s hues, making them all appear to pulsate with their own lights. They glided out of the gate slowly, their thin bodies levitating inches off of the ground.
And then, just like that, they blurred off into the distance, too fast for my eyes to track, but this time, I followed one of the “aliens” as he left the scene. I focused in on him as he made his way to . . . Tennessee, yes. Even though I’d never been there myself, in my current state I had knowledge of this place. I watched as he glided into the bedroom of an older man—his dark hair was a similar shade to Bryn’s, I noted—and well, the “alien” proceeded to ooze into him. It was if the “alien” went liquidy and flowed into the man, only to reform inside of him. He still looked like the man he had been, and yet . . . I could
see
the “alien” shining through. It was very disconcerting dual imagery that caused me to scream just as I was hurtled back into my body, everything going dark.

I came to slowly, my head pounding as if someone had done a tap dance on my skull. My mom stood nearby, talking in a hushed voice, “No, doctor, she passed out cold. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Well, please get here as soon as you can. I’m pretty sure it was just a premonition, but because she’s never had one before, I can’t really be sure.” The telltale beep of the cordless phone let me know my mom had hung up.

I sat up slowly, blinking my bedroom into focus. “I’m fine, Mom. I don’t need a doctor.”

“Oh, honey, you’re awake. Good.” My mom sat on the edge of my bed and put the back of her hand to my forehead in the way that it seems all mothers do.

I pushed it away with annoyance. “I said I was fine. I just had a premonition is all.”

My mom studied my face for a moment and then smiled. “Oh, I’m so happy. What did you see?”

“It was horrible—I saw the gate and everything but then these aliens came through and then I followed this one alien, well not me exactly but my consciousness or whatever and then the alien slid into this old guy and I could see him hiding underneath him—inside him—like he took over almost like a possession.” I inhaled deeply, not having bothered to take a breath during my entire long, run-on sentence of babble, but at least I’d gotten it out—sort of.

My mom’s smile dropped from her face. “That’s not possible, honey. There has never been a time when a lone Seer was witness to such an event. And on top of that, anytime any of the gates have ever actually been breached, the offending aliens have never made it more than a few steps into our world. That’s why all of us exist, to prevent such things from happening. And usually a Seer’s first vision is something pretty benign . . . You know that. Your first vision wouldn’t be of an impending breach. You aren’t ready for that yet. A Seer’s mind won’t show her something she’s not ready to handle. I guess maybe you did just pass out from low blood sugar or something. Good thing the doctor’s on his way. I don’t think your little episode had anything to do with your powers. What I do think is—”

“No, Mom, it was real!” I exclaimed.

“Alright, honey. Just calm down and we can talk about this later,” which meant she didn’t believe me and was just patronizing me until she had something better to dissuade me with. Fine, I could bide my time, too. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited.

An hour later I had a clean bill of health, although I still couldn’t convince anyone that my premonition was real. I was beginning to wonder how sure I still was about it to persist with the fight. Besides, I had more important things to worry about at the moment. I was almost to Jenna’s house, and I hadn’t thought of a single good lie that I thought she’d buy about where I had been last night. I couldn’t exactly say I was with Jeremy because then if I slipped up about some detail from our date, she would know I was lying. A part of me wished I could just tell her about me and Bryn, but the fewer people who knew, the safer our secret would stay.
Having a secret affair just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I’d barely raised my hand to ring Jenna’s doorbell when she was pulling me into her house, only to then drag me up to her bedroom. She flopped onto her bed and looked at me expectantly. “Spill,” she demanded.

I sighed, my eyes dodging around her room, wishing I didn’t have to say anything. “Well, there’s really not much to spill—we fell asleep is all.”

“Liar,” Jenna hissed. “I’m a Speaker, remember? I can understand all kinds of language, including body language, and you”—she waved her hand in my general direction—“are hiding all kinds of secrets.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re a Speaker, not a mind reader. You’ve been known to make mistakes before.”

“Not this time. Spill—now,” she demanded again.

“I don’t have to put up with you accusing me of stuff that I’m not even guilty of—I fell asleep, and that’s all,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me and studied my face for a few seconds before relaxing. “Okay.”

What? Some Speaker she was if she actually bought that. “Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

My phone beeped, letting me know I had a new text message. I popped it open to see it was from Bryn.

Getting impatient—need to see you. Meet me in 15 @ our tree
.

My face flushed at him mentioning “our tree;” I’d come to think of it as that, but I was pleasantly surprised to know he had, too. My stomach did a little flip flop thinking about having Bryn kiss me while pressed up against my favorite tree in the whole world—where he’d finally decided to be with me.

K
, I responded.

I shut my phone and looked up to see Jenna eyeing me suspiciously. “Who was that?”

“Bryn. But umm . . . I’ve gotta go. We’ll talk more later.” I hurried from her room. “Thanks for covering for me—love ya!” I called over my shoulder as I rushed through her front door, slamming it behind me. I didn’t want to upset Jenna, but I wanted to see Bryn more than anything else in the world right now. The walk over was a blur. I was floating on a cloud of joyous anticipation, and I would have run, but I didn’t want to arrive all sweaty to see Bryn.

I’d hardly made it a few feet into the spattering of woods across from my house when warm, strong arms encircled me from behind. “I missed you.” Bryn spun me around and captured my lips with his. I allowed myself to sink into him, his scent and taste making me feel like I was being welcomed home.

“I missed you, too,” I murmured, running my hands eagerly over his muscled body. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in months, not hours. His hands explored me, emboldened by the night we’d shared last evening, and it wasn’t long before we could have been arrested for indecent exposure.

“I’ll never get enough of you, Peej. It’s like a dream—us being together,” Bryn rumbled. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.”

“Oh. My. God.” Jenna’s voice shattered our happy little love bubble. Bryn and I fumbled to put back on and straighten our clothes as Jenna stood in the clearing gaping at us. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” she exclaimed.

“Why would I tell you?” Bryn said with agitation.

“Not you—her. I mean, I know he’s your best friend and all—and now I can see why—but I’m at least your best
female
friend.” She crossed her arms and glared at me with indignation.

“Did you follow me?” I couldn’t believe she actually followed me—well, then again, maybe I could. I would do it if I were in her shoes. “You didn’t believe me at all. You just said you did so I wouldn’t think to check if you were following me.”

“Exactly.” Jenna smirked at me. “I knew you were hiding something really big and juicy. I just never in a million years imagined it was this.” She motioned to both Bryn and me. “And you guys are in love? I mean, having sex is one thing, you know, being friends with benefits or something, but this is some really serious shit.”

“You heard us?” I asked incredulously. “But if you followed me—” I stopped to stare at her for a stunned moment. “You were watching us? Oh my God, Jenna, are you some kind of perverted voyeur or something?”

“No! I’m not, I just wanted to see what I could find out, and then I got distracted by a chatty squirrel who, by the way, said he would normally be annoyed by you guys, but after the other night when he heard you professing your love for each other, he is now okay with you guys being here. I kind of thought he was exaggerating the whole love thing, but apparently not.”

Damn Speakers,
I inwardly cursed,
and damn chatty squirrels.
“You can’t tell anyone—please,” I begged.